Transferable skills, marketability and lifelong learning: The particular case of postgraduate research students

Although there is now a plethora of development programmes and research studies on what are generally called ‘transferable skills˚s, they are almost entirely at undergraduate level. Pockets of training to help postgraduate research students to develop the ‘key˚s transferable skills do exist, but there is little, if any, provision to help the students to recognise, identify and build on the ‘transferable˚s aspects of the skills which they are developing as a natural consequence of undertaking a research degree, or to make a sound case for the existence of these skills in job interviews. On the basis of a study in five departments at University College London, this article identifies and presents (i) principles by which institutions can set up such provision, and (ii) a framework for a high-level transferable skill-set which should (a) distinguish a holder of a PhD and possibly and possibly an MPhil from holders of first degrees and shorter research degrees and (b) provide triggers to help individual MPhil/PhD students to identify the richness of their own skill-sets.